August 3, 1999
When someone is impatient, my dad used to say, “Don’t get your shirt in a knot.” After a stressful day at work, my husband often has a few knots in his back. When I’m asked to make an impromptu speech, my stomach knots up.
To a boy scout, knots are over hands, half hitches and sheep shanks but these are knots of a different kind, knots that tell us stress is ruining both inner peace and physical comfort.
Someone made a poster picturing a huge, knotted rope with the words, “Let Jesus untie the knots.” Despite the picture, the slogan is not about over hands or half hitches either. The artist who designed the poster encourages others to find God’s secret for dealing with stress.
So how does God do it? Does He take away the problem? Sometimes. More often than not (no pun intended), He deals with everything from root causes through to painful symptoms.
One root of stress is unwelcome experiences such as a loss, deep pain, unresolved conflict with others, accidents and other trauma. However, the world’s “worry warts” knot up just thinking about them, so another root of stress is needless anxiety. People worry that something bad is going to happen or something good is not. Maybe there will not be enough money to put food on the table or buy a winter coat or pay the mortgage.
Health issues create stress too. Some worry about cancer or heart attacks. Most people fear death. One illness takes a toll; what about two more? These stresses can tie us in knots.
However, even with the basics covered, we can get our shirt in a knot. What if there is not enough money to pay for Susie’s education or Johnny’s braces? What about that new carpet or those winter tires? How will I handle my new promotion? How much more of my time will be eaten by this commitment or that? What will I cook for dinner? What will I wear to the party?
Stress relates to performance. What if my work is not acceptable? What if I lose my job? Deeper still, what if my life has no significance? Where will I go when I die? What if God will not let me into heaven? More knots.
To untie these knots, Jesus offers us an unusual alternative. If we take His offer, we will find ourselves living in two worlds. One is our existence here with all these threats and stresses. The other is residence in the kingdom of God where the rules are not the same. When we allow His kingdom to have the primary place in our lives, His rules override life’s stresses.
For example, in this world, we must work for a living. In the kingdom of God, we live under a promise that He will take care of all our needs. Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things (referring to the basics) will be given to you as well.”
God ensures we will not go without. If we need a job, He provides it. If we need a raise, He can work that out too. He knows all about us and provides whatever we need. He never leaves us stuck, either with decisions or to do it ourselves. He asks that we simply trust in His care.
In this world, we also experience loneliness and rejection, but in His kingdom we have unlimited love and acceptance. He promises He will never leave us nor forsake us. His Spirit lives in our hearts and we can continually communicate with Him through His Word and prayer.
In this world, we experience pain, illness, and all the stressful negatives of life, yet those who live in the kingdom of God rely on His unchanging promises. He does not allow more than we can handle. He works all things together for our good, even the negatives, to make us more like Jesus.
Just as there are two kinds of “knots,” there are two ways to live; on our own with whatever resources we might have, or in both worlds — relying on His power from one to untie the knots in the other.
Showing posts with label new life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new life. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Monday, January 11, 2016
Have a heart ............. Parables 378
July 13, 1993
Two severe childhood cases of rheumatic fever left me with a leaky mitral valve and a prognosis of death before middle teens. But mother prayed, my doctors labored, and I survived.
An ultrasound three years ago and another test this month resulted in the same comment from two different doctors: “If you had not told me, I would not have noticed any heart murmur... it is very faint.”
According to the specialists, my heart is healed.
But a heart can be damaged by other things. Besides physical disorders, people can break it. Unfulfilled dreams can make it ache. Unhealthy or harmful relationships can scar it. Suspended hope can make it feel sick. Our heart is a most vulnerable thing.
Obviously these are not references to the physical heart but to the emotional side of our personalities, the part that feels deep pain when injured. This “heart” doesn’t heal by surgery or medication.
There is also a third kind of heart, one the Bible speaks of far more frequently than the other two. Genesis 6 says, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
From that beginning through to Revelation, readers are reminded that God searches our hearts and rewards every one according to how they live. He makes the connection because this “heart” is the center of who we are, the inner part where we think and make choices that lead to actions and the way we live. If our hearts could choose rightly, God would commend us but the sad truth is, none of us think as God intended.
He created us to love and enjoy Him from the heart in an attitude of submission. Instead, we invariably make the choice of independence and rule our own lives — apart from Him. Because this is true, and because He loves us, He sent Christ to offer us a not only a new life but a new heart.
A new heart doesn’t mean open heart surgery. It does mean what the Bible calls regeneration, a renewal that involves a supernatural cleansing from sin and guilt. When it happens, we can see His perspective on the folly of sin and the necessity of obedience. A new heart means thinking differently.
It is not accomplished like a magician with a wand. Old habits are hard to break even though it is reasonable to offer ourselves to God. We try to act right but He encourages us to think right: “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
We are responsible to abandon our own former reasoning and choices as well as reject the way the world thinks and discipline ourselves to a regular “cardiovascular” workout. That means reading and studying Scripture, filling our minds with God’s thoughts, then doing as He says.
Not only does a new heart have the capacity to understand spiritual truth, it’s condition improves with exercise. Pain and scars of our own doing and from mistreatment gradually heal and no longer trouble us.
As I look back over my life, I can see how God has healed my hearts: all three of them. I can wash walls, something doctors said I could never do; I can love and be loved, something I’ve occasionally thought would never happen; and both are more enjoyable and even possible because the Lord touched me and healed my third heart.
Two severe childhood cases of rheumatic fever left me with a leaky mitral valve and a prognosis of death before middle teens. But mother prayed, my doctors labored, and I survived.
An ultrasound three years ago and another test this month resulted in the same comment from two different doctors: “If you had not told me, I would not have noticed any heart murmur... it is very faint.”
According to the specialists, my heart is healed.
But a heart can be damaged by other things. Besides physical disorders, people can break it. Unfulfilled dreams can make it ache. Unhealthy or harmful relationships can scar it. Suspended hope can make it feel sick. Our heart is a most vulnerable thing.
Obviously these are not references to the physical heart but to the emotional side of our personalities, the part that feels deep pain when injured. This “heart” doesn’t heal by surgery or medication.
There is also a third kind of heart, one the Bible speaks of far more frequently than the other two. Genesis 6 says, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
From that beginning through to Revelation, readers are reminded that God searches our hearts and rewards every one according to how they live. He makes the connection because this “heart” is the center of who we are, the inner part where we think and make choices that lead to actions and the way we live. If our hearts could choose rightly, God would commend us but the sad truth is, none of us think as God intended.
He created us to love and enjoy Him from the heart in an attitude of submission. Instead, we invariably make the choice of independence and rule our own lives — apart from Him. Because this is true, and because He loves us, He sent Christ to offer us a not only a new life but a new heart.
A new heart doesn’t mean open heart surgery. It does mean what the Bible calls regeneration, a renewal that involves a supernatural cleansing from sin and guilt. When it happens, we can see His perspective on the folly of sin and the necessity of obedience. A new heart means thinking differently.
It is not accomplished like a magician with a wand. Old habits are hard to break even though it is reasonable to offer ourselves to God. We try to act right but He encourages us to think right: “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
We are responsible to abandon our own former reasoning and choices as well as reject the way the world thinks and discipline ourselves to a regular “cardiovascular” workout. That means reading and studying Scripture, filling our minds with God’s thoughts, then doing as He says.
Not only does a new heart have the capacity to understand spiritual truth, it’s condition improves with exercise. Pain and scars of our own doing and from mistreatment gradually heal and no longer trouble us.
As I look back over my life, I can see how God has healed my hearts: all three of them. I can wash walls, something doctors said I could never do; I can love and be loved, something I’ve occasionally thought would never happen; and both are more enjoyable and even possible because the Lord touched me and healed my third heart.
Monday, July 13, 2015
A New Thing .............. Parables 299
January 7, 1992
A farmer in the Moose Jaw area has invented a new type of rod weeder. He says it will do in three days what once took sixteen with older equipment. Whether or not his boast is accurate, he won’t go back to outmoded methods. He spent half his life doing things that maybe worked but now he has discovered a better way and no one is going to convince him to change and go back.
Human beings are inventive sorts. Some say necessity is inventions’s mother but sometimes new things are given birth by our desire to work quicker, easier, or cheaper. Perhaps a longing for beauty tugs at our coattails and we paint pictures, embroider pillows and write poetry. Whatever the reasons behind our inventions, much of that creative ability was built in when the Creator God invented male and female in His own image.
Genesis was not the end of God’s invention of new things, however. When a few Israelite men rebelled against Him, “...the LORD created a new thing — the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up... they went down alive into the pit...” While onlookers gaped in terror, God used the first earthquake to demonstrate the seriousness of sin. Did this new invention do the trick?
No. While the earthquake judgment did rid the nation of some rebels, it did not bring the children of God into submission. It was set aside for another method, an inventive idea also called a new thing, a “road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). This was figurative language for a promise of a way out of their difficulties, a promise of mercy.
Like children who are first spanked, then hugged, the Israelites enjoyed the hugs far more than the earthquakes, but they still rebelled against their Father. One would wonder why God did not go back to the former plan and just open the earth and swallow them up, but mercy won over judgment. He unfolded still another plan, another new thing.
Earthquakes nor even God’s promise had no effect on sinful people so He fashioned a saving device whereby rebellious hearts could be changed. He knew we ourselves could not change, even if we wanted to. But He could make us new. Coming in a cradle, culminating in a Cross, this new thing — God in human flesh — was the invention par excellence, God’s coup de grace. What the law could not do, what judgment and wrath could not do, what promises of mercy could not do — the Son of God did. All who desire a new thing may put their faith in Him and, by the power of God, “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (Corinthians 5:17).
Like the farmer and his new weeder, there is no reverting back. Those who are under grace never need to fear the wrath of God because all the condemnation we deserved was taken at the Cross. Jesus bore the penalty of sin for us. He warns us “not turn back to folly,” but the same verse promises He “will speak peace To His people and to His saints.”
There is danger for those who think that because God is not opening the ground and swallowing up sinners they can continue in sin and never face His wrath. However, John 3:36 says those “... who do not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Certainly the expression of His full wrath is withheld for now — He is not willing that any should perish. But someday His wrath will be revealed from heaven (Romans 1) and be poured out upon the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 5:6) who will be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.”
It will come when people are so accustomed to the mercy of God that they will think wrath is a “new thing”... really it is not — it is simply what a Holy God should have done about our sin all along.
A farmer in the Moose Jaw area has invented a new type of rod weeder. He says it will do in three days what once took sixteen with older equipment. Whether or not his boast is accurate, he won’t go back to outmoded methods. He spent half his life doing things that maybe worked but now he has discovered a better way and no one is going to convince him to change and go back.
Human beings are inventive sorts. Some say necessity is inventions’s mother but sometimes new things are given birth by our desire to work quicker, easier, or cheaper. Perhaps a longing for beauty tugs at our coattails and we paint pictures, embroider pillows and write poetry. Whatever the reasons behind our inventions, much of that creative ability was built in when the Creator God invented male and female in His own image.
Genesis was not the end of God’s invention of new things, however. When a few Israelite men rebelled against Him, “...the LORD created a new thing — the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up... they went down alive into the pit...” While onlookers gaped in terror, God used the first earthquake to demonstrate the seriousness of sin. Did this new invention do the trick?
No. While the earthquake judgment did rid the nation of some rebels, it did not bring the children of God into submission. It was set aside for another method, an inventive idea also called a new thing, a “road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). This was figurative language for a promise of a way out of their difficulties, a promise of mercy.
Like children who are first spanked, then hugged, the Israelites enjoyed the hugs far more than the earthquakes, but they still rebelled against their Father. One would wonder why God did not go back to the former plan and just open the earth and swallow them up, but mercy won over judgment. He unfolded still another plan, another new thing.
Earthquakes nor even God’s promise had no effect on sinful people so He fashioned a saving device whereby rebellious hearts could be changed. He knew we ourselves could not change, even if we wanted to. But He could make us new. Coming in a cradle, culminating in a Cross, this new thing — God in human flesh — was the invention par excellence, God’s coup de grace. What the law could not do, what judgment and wrath could not do, what promises of mercy could not do — the Son of God did. All who desire a new thing may put their faith in Him and, by the power of God, “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (Corinthians 5:17).
Like the farmer and his new weeder, there is no reverting back. Those who are under grace never need to fear the wrath of God because all the condemnation we deserved was taken at the Cross. Jesus bore the penalty of sin for us. He warns us “not turn back to folly,” but the same verse promises He “will speak peace To His people and to His saints.”
There is danger for those who think that because God is not opening the ground and swallowing up sinners they can continue in sin and never face His wrath. However, John 3:36 says those “... who do not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Certainly the expression of His full wrath is withheld for now — He is not willing that any should perish. But someday His wrath will be revealed from heaven (Romans 1) and be poured out upon the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 5:6) who will be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.”
It will come when people are so accustomed to the mercy of God that they will think wrath is a “new thing”... really it is not — it is simply what a Holy God should have done about our sin all along.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Nettling and New Life ................. Parables 243
(November 21, 1990)
Ever heard of nettling? My sociology professor tells of this practice discovered by a young doctor making his first house call where a baby was about to be born. Apparently the doctor was quite apprehensive so when he arrived and found a midwife on the scene, he decided to let her do her thing and he would watch, and hopefully learn something.
Imagine his bewilderment when the midwife rolled a piece of paper into a cone and stuck it into the laboring patient’s nostril. Imagine his concern when she poured ground pepper into the cone. What happened isn’t too difficult to picture... at the appropriate moment, the midwife blew into the cone, sending pepper up into the sinuses of the expectant mother, she let out a colossal sneeze, and baby shot out like a cannonball and had to actually be caught before it flew off the end of the bed!
That folk lore is called nettling.
Amusing or not, birth is the most necessary part of being alive. No one can remain in the womb forever. Living depends on being born.
Jesus talked about eternal life using the imagery of birth. He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
The term “born again” has been picked up by the media and everyone else who wants to signify something new, and is over-used so much that it has almost become meaningless. However, it is still a biblical concept that carries just as much importance now as it did then. Jesus went on to say that no one can “enter the kingdom of God” without being reborn.
This new birth is the result of a conception of sorts. The Holy Spirit at work in a receptive heart equals new life. The Spirit’s work includes: convincing that person of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment... sin because they do not believe in Christ; righteousness because the only One who was sinless no longer walks before them as an example of what they should be; and judgment because Satan (who tells us lies about these things) has been judged — and they will too if they do not respond.
The person’s heart is receptive only if they agree with the Holy Spirit’s evaluation of their condition and agree that their only way out of condemnation before God is through faith in His Son... not just believing the facts about Jesus but believing with such wholeheartedness that they eagerly turn from sin and spend the rest of their physical life living for Christ.
To be sure, new life in the spiritual realm begins with babyhood and continues to maturity just as physical life does, but it is a process that cannot be stopped, (stunted maybe); full-growth is the promise of God to everyone who becomes His child. He feeds and nourishes us by the “milk” found in His Word; the “meat” of obeying what it says; and through the work of the Spirit as He changes us to be more like Jesus. He also uses other, more mature Christians gifted for that purpose until someday “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13)
Nettling might be one human effort that works to bring forth babies but God says no human effort can result in a spiritual birth. John 1:12 and 13 say: “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God, even to those who believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT OF GOD.”
We cannot will ourselves to spiritual life, but we can respond to Him — and it will happen.
Ever heard of nettling? My sociology professor tells of this practice discovered by a young doctor making his first house call where a baby was about to be born. Apparently the doctor was quite apprehensive so when he arrived and found a midwife on the scene, he decided to let her do her thing and he would watch, and hopefully learn something.
Imagine his bewilderment when the midwife rolled a piece of paper into a cone and stuck it into the laboring patient’s nostril. Imagine his concern when she poured ground pepper into the cone. What happened isn’t too difficult to picture... at the appropriate moment, the midwife blew into the cone, sending pepper up into the sinuses of the expectant mother, she let out a colossal sneeze, and baby shot out like a cannonball and had to actually be caught before it flew off the end of the bed!
That folk lore is called nettling.
Amusing or not, birth is the most necessary part of being alive. No one can remain in the womb forever. Living depends on being born.
Jesus talked about eternal life using the imagery of birth. He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
The term “born again” has been picked up by the media and everyone else who wants to signify something new, and is over-used so much that it has almost become meaningless. However, it is still a biblical concept that carries just as much importance now as it did then. Jesus went on to say that no one can “enter the kingdom of God” without being reborn.
This new birth is the result of a conception of sorts. The Holy Spirit at work in a receptive heart equals new life. The Spirit’s work includes: convincing that person of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment... sin because they do not believe in Christ; righteousness because the only One who was sinless no longer walks before them as an example of what they should be; and judgment because Satan (who tells us lies about these things) has been judged — and they will too if they do not respond.
The person’s heart is receptive only if they agree with the Holy Spirit’s evaluation of their condition and agree that their only way out of condemnation before God is through faith in His Son... not just believing the facts about Jesus but believing with such wholeheartedness that they eagerly turn from sin and spend the rest of their physical life living for Christ.
To be sure, new life in the spiritual realm begins with babyhood and continues to maturity just as physical life does, but it is a process that cannot be stopped, (stunted maybe); full-growth is the promise of God to everyone who becomes His child. He feeds and nourishes us by the “milk” found in His Word; the “meat” of obeying what it says; and through the work of the Spirit as He changes us to be more like Jesus. He also uses other, more mature Christians gifted for that purpose until someday “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13)
Nettling might be one human effort that works to bring forth babies but God says no human effort can result in a spiritual birth. John 1:12 and 13 say: “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God, even to those who believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT OF GOD.”
We cannot will ourselves to spiritual life, but we can respond to Him — and it will happen.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Evolution? ................. Parables 229
(August 8, 1990)
How does evolution explain a skunk?
The theory says: simple, one-celled organisms developed into complex creatures. Therefore, this defenseless little critter must have “evolved” its complex spray gun; yet in the battle of survival, what kept larger, “more evolved” creatures from killing it? Was It coincidence? Did wolves and coyotes just fail to notice this harmless black and white kitty? How did the skunk survive several eons without odor until its glands could develop this distinctive form of protection...?
I used to believe evolution was a valid theory. I remember arguing with my mother about it. She had all the biblical answers but nothing she could say convinced me. Finally, it was science that ran out of answers.
I was in my early 20's when a scientific statement caught my attention. It was: “energy is neither created or destroyed, only changed to a different form.” I wondered about a particular from of energy -- my life. If that scientific statement was true, then where did my life come from before I had it, and where would it go when I died? Heavy questions, but I only could conclude that, scientifically, my life would never end. I wasn’t sure if it began somewhere else or, if it did, where that might have been, but I knew the energy of my life must go somewhere after my body was done with it.
While trying to find answers to my questions, I read a book about reincarnation. Oddly, there was a verse of Scripture in that book, used out of context to support what I now know is an unbiblical belief. God had a purpose in it being there though. Psalms 119:130 says: “The entrance of thy words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”
Ever walk out of darkness into a brightly lit room? You can’t see anything but light for quite a while. That is what happened to me. As I read that verse of Scripture with an open and questioning mind, the room seemed filled with the light of what God revealed to me.
The first truth He gave me was not about evolution or about where the energy of my life came from before I was born. I didn’t find out then where life would go after I died either. Instead, God showed me something far more important; He revealed the mystery of the identity of Jesus Christ. I suddenly knew, beyond any doubt, that He is God Almighty who came in human flesh.
I put the book aside and began reading God’s Book. He unfolded truth after truth. I saw my need as a sinner and asked Him to forgive me and come into my life. Only then was the whole question of my eternal destiny settled.
I saw other things in Scripture that amazed me. One was that God knew all about me before I was even born, because He made me. The Psalmist expressed the delight I felt: “I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made...” (Psalm 139).
The Bible also showed me something science didn’t know back then, that each creature has it’s own kind of cell structure. A skunk could never have been a snake, they are not made of the same kind of cells. Science now says each creature has skin cells, heart tissue cells, brain cells, all interdependent but none like the other. Such design demands a Designer.
Another thing I learned was, “by faith we understand... that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” Christians understand creation by faith. Faith is not a subjective wish that makes something true only in our own mind; it is a gift from God that enables us to see realities that sin otherwise blinds us to... thus I couldn’t accept my mother’s arguments until God dealt with my sin.
I don’t like the smell of a skunk, but I am glad they have their distinctive odor. It reminds me that God wisely planned every feature of every living thing. It also reminds me of His grace; He opened my eyes to spiritual realities – far more than the mystery of how a skunk got its weapon!
How does evolution explain a skunk?
The theory says: simple, one-celled organisms developed into complex creatures. Therefore, this defenseless little critter must have “evolved” its complex spray gun; yet in the battle of survival, what kept larger, “more evolved” creatures from killing it? Was It coincidence? Did wolves and coyotes just fail to notice this harmless black and white kitty? How did the skunk survive several eons without odor until its glands could develop this distinctive form of protection...?
I used to believe evolution was a valid theory. I remember arguing with my mother about it. She had all the biblical answers but nothing she could say convinced me. Finally, it was science that ran out of answers.
I was in my early 20's when a scientific statement caught my attention. It was: “energy is neither created or destroyed, only changed to a different form.” I wondered about a particular from of energy -- my life. If that scientific statement was true, then where did my life come from before I had it, and where would it go when I died? Heavy questions, but I only could conclude that, scientifically, my life would never end. I wasn’t sure if it began somewhere else or, if it did, where that might have been, but I knew the energy of my life must go somewhere after my body was done with it.
While trying to find answers to my questions, I read a book about reincarnation. Oddly, there was a verse of Scripture in that book, used out of context to support what I now know is an unbiblical belief. God had a purpose in it being there though. Psalms 119:130 says: “The entrance of thy words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”
Ever walk out of darkness into a brightly lit room? You can’t see anything but light for quite a while. That is what happened to me. As I read that verse of Scripture with an open and questioning mind, the room seemed filled with the light of what God revealed to me.
The first truth He gave me was not about evolution or about where the energy of my life came from before I was born. I didn’t find out then where life would go after I died either. Instead, God showed me something far more important; He revealed the mystery of the identity of Jesus Christ. I suddenly knew, beyond any doubt, that He is God Almighty who came in human flesh.
I put the book aside and began reading God’s Book. He unfolded truth after truth. I saw my need as a sinner and asked Him to forgive me and come into my life. Only then was the whole question of my eternal destiny settled.
I saw other things in Scripture that amazed me. One was that God knew all about me before I was even born, because He made me. The Psalmist expressed the delight I felt: “I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made...” (Psalm 139).
The Bible also showed me something science didn’t know back then, that each creature has it’s own kind of cell structure. A skunk could never have been a snake, they are not made of the same kind of cells. Science now says each creature has skin cells, heart tissue cells, brain cells, all interdependent but none like the other. Such design demands a Designer.
Another thing I learned was, “by faith we understand... that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” Christians understand creation by faith. Faith is not a subjective wish that makes something true only in our own mind; it is a gift from God that enables us to see realities that sin otherwise blinds us to... thus I couldn’t accept my mother’s arguments until God dealt with my sin.
I don’t like the smell of a skunk, but I am glad they have their distinctive odor. It reminds me that God wisely planned every feature of every living thing. It also reminds me of His grace; He opened my eyes to spiritual realities – far more than the mystery of how a skunk got its weapon!
Friday, December 5, 2014
Need a spiritual adjustment? ................. Parables 205
(February 21, 1990)
It didn’t fit at all. The arms were too far apart. The seat tilted wrong. The back hit my back in the wrong place. Worse yet, it seemed to aggravate the aches and pains that were still there from sitting in the old one. My husband was disappointed. He felt bad that he’d selected such an inappropriate computer chair for my birthday.
So I took it back. The lady in the store graciously ordered me another and called me a day later. On my way down to try out the new chair, I went to see my chiropractor and had my back adjusted. It was more out of alignment than it had ever been. What an adjustment!
A few minutes later, I arrived at the store, hoping this chair would fit. When I saw it, I remarked it looked just like the old one. “No,” she said, “this one is less expensive. Just sit in it.”
It fit. I was happy, even though I had to come back later for my refund. So I loaded it in the car and took it home. Later, when I returned, I was told there was a mistake -- it was the same chair as before! Obviously it was not the chair that needed adjusting.
The whole episode reminded me of an old cartoon depicting a mother watching her son march with his army division. As the soldiers went by, she proudly announced, “Oh look, everyone is out of step but my Johnny.”
Last week, my back probably wouldn’t have liked any chair. I could have shopped and shopped, got upset with the people who sell or manufacture chairs and never found anything that fit right. This happens in the spiritual realm too. Consider this parallel: “I am in pain and somebody told me to read the Bible, but all it does is make me feel worse. It tells me all my faults and points out everything I do wrong. I don’t like the Christian message... It makes me feel bad about myself. I’m going to shop around....”
Sore back or sore souls, a lot of folks are tired and carrying burdens too large for them. Broken homes, loss of employment and trials of all kinds are loads that can bend anyone over in pain. They may read the words of invitation Jesus gave in Matthew 11 to all who “are weary and heavy laden”, but cannot seem to follow through on the remainder: “Come unto me... take my yoke upon you and learn of me... and you shall find rest for your souls.” For them, there is simply no rest.
God says “Is my hand shortened that it cannot save...?” Is it God’s fault that some find no peace or comfort in the Scriptures? No. He says the problem is, “Your sins have separated you from me...”
His remedy would fit our need -- but we are out of step with God. Or, like my back, our lives first need adjusting. We have to get our sin dealt with before His blessings will fit. After that, Jesus can lift any burden. He promises that “whoever comes to me, I will in no way cast out.” He never pushes us away because our load is too much for Him to bear. In fact, He took our biggest burden on Himself at Calvary. There He willingly bore the punishment we deserved and broke down the barrier that separates us from God’s richest blessings.
When we come to Him first with our sin, we find that He makes us “new creatures” with a new nature, a new way of looking at life and a new capacity to deal with its perplexities. You might say He has “adjusted” us. After that initial adjustment, we will find His Word a comfort to our sore places and His promises a balm to our burdens. Sure, it still pinches whenever we sin, but the fault is not with the Bible.
“The natural man (the person without Christ) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual discerns all things... he has the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2).... Now that’s an adjustment!
It didn’t fit at all. The arms were too far apart. The seat tilted wrong. The back hit my back in the wrong place. Worse yet, it seemed to aggravate the aches and pains that were still there from sitting in the old one. My husband was disappointed. He felt bad that he’d selected such an inappropriate computer chair for my birthday.
So I took it back. The lady in the store graciously ordered me another and called me a day later. On my way down to try out the new chair, I went to see my chiropractor and had my back adjusted. It was more out of alignment than it had ever been. What an adjustment!
A few minutes later, I arrived at the store, hoping this chair would fit. When I saw it, I remarked it looked just like the old one. “No,” she said, “this one is less expensive. Just sit in it.”
It fit. I was happy, even though I had to come back later for my refund. So I loaded it in the car and took it home. Later, when I returned, I was told there was a mistake -- it was the same chair as before! Obviously it was not the chair that needed adjusting.
The whole episode reminded me of an old cartoon depicting a mother watching her son march with his army division. As the soldiers went by, she proudly announced, “Oh look, everyone is out of step but my Johnny.”
Last week, my back probably wouldn’t have liked any chair. I could have shopped and shopped, got upset with the people who sell or manufacture chairs and never found anything that fit right. This happens in the spiritual realm too. Consider this parallel: “I am in pain and somebody told me to read the Bible, but all it does is make me feel worse. It tells me all my faults and points out everything I do wrong. I don’t like the Christian message... It makes me feel bad about myself. I’m going to shop around....”
Sore back or sore souls, a lot of folks are tired and carrying burdens too large for them. Broken homes, loss of employment and trials of all kinds are loads that can bend anyone over in pain. They may read the words of invitation Jesus gave in Matthew 11 to all who “are weary and heavy laden”, but cannot seem to follow through on the remainder: “Come unto me... take my yoke upon you and learn of me... and you shall find rest for your souls.” For them, there is simply no rest.
God says “Is my hand shortened that it cannot save...?” Is it God’s fault that some find no peace or comfort in the Scriptures? No. He says the problem is, “Your sins have separated you from me...”
His remedy would fit our need -- but we are out of step with God. Or, like my back, our lives first need adjusting. We have to get our sin dealt with before His blessings will fit. After that, Jesus can lift any burden. He promises that “whoever comes to me, I will in no way cast out.” He never pushes us away because our load is too much for Him to bear. In fact, He took our biggest burden on Himself at Calvary. There He willingly bore the punishment we deserved and broke down the barrier that separates us from God’s richest blessings.
When we come to Him first with our sin, we find that He makes us “new creatures” with a new nature, a new way of looking at life and a new capacity to deal with its perplexities. You might say He has “adjusted” us. After that initial adjustment, we will find His Word a comfort to our sore places and His promises a balm to our burdens. Sure, it still pinches whenever we sin, but the fault is not with the Bible.
“The natural man (the person without Christ) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual discerns all things... he has the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2).... Now that’s an adjustment!
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Turning from bad habits . . . ........................... Parables 180
August 30, 1989
My mother was thirteen years old when she tried her first cigarette. She was forty-something when she smoked her last. Now, in her seventies, she confesses she was years fighting the desire to start again.
It wasn’t easy for her to quit, as any smoker will testify. Any habit is difficult to break, especially one that seems to give a measure of calm to the nerves or comfort to the body.
When mom decided to quit, she analyzed her habit. When did she crave a smoke the most? She decided it was right after meals and before she did the dishes. (A stack of dirty dishes from a farm family of six, plus whoever else may have been there, might send anyone into a bad habit!)
Now some who enjoy doing dishes might head right to the sink and forget things like cigarettes, but mom felt a need of a break right about then. However, she decided the only way to beat the craving was not to forsake her short time of relaxation and get at the dishes, but sit down anyway and do something else with her hands. So instead of picking up a white cylinder of nicotine, she took out some longer cylinders -- knitting needles and crochet hooks.
Over a dozen crocheted table clothes, uncountable sweaters, afghans and the like mark her success at breaking the habit and give visible evidence that her lungs have been cleared. She is to be commended.
Actually, mom’s idea originated in the Bible. Some call it the principle of replacement -- putting off an undesirable habit, trait, or characteristic by putting on something else. The New Testament first deals with something very basic that we need to get rid of -- our sinful nature.
Mom may have been able to go to a craft store and pick up a replacement for her problem, but picking up a new nature isn’t that easy. Stores don’t sell them. Self-help books and seminars try, but they don’t do anything more than dress up the old one. Resolutions or turning over a new leaf or trying harder may make some changes, however we cannot change who and what we are all by ourselves. Back to the Manufacturer we must go. The One who created us in the first place can restore us to the condition He originally intended. He does it through what the Bible calls regeneration, that is, the bestowal of new life, the life of His Son, into those who place their faith in Him.
The Apostle Paul referred to it this way, “Those who are in Christ Jesus are new creations; old things have passed away, all things are become new.” The life of Christ replaces the old nature, thus a Christian has a new nature, but is not automatically without sin. The old nature is still able to draw believers into sin. Part of the problem are those enslaving habits that may have formed before regeneration took place. This is where the replacement principle again comes in. Paul wrote, “Now put off the old nature which is corrupt... and put on the new nature which is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
He goes on to give some examples: “Don’t lie -- speak the truth. Don’t steal -- work so you have something to give to others in need. Don’t speak foul words -- say words that minister grace to your hearers. Put away bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice -- and be kind to others, tenderhearted, forgiving even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” (See Ephesians 4)
The key is concentration on the new. Trying not to do the old habit gets us nowhere but frustrated. Begin with asking God for new life, then take up the challenge of being truthful, hard working, generous, gracious, kind, tender, forgiving -- and we won’t have time for the other things!
The results? Paul calls it “an eternal weight of glory” and an “inheritance that is incorruptible and will never fade away.” Sounds even better than table clothes and sweaters!
My mother was thirteen years old when she tried her first cigarette. She was forty-something when she smoked her last. Now, in her seventies, she confesses she was years fighting the desire to start again.
It wasn’t easy for her to quit, as any smoker will testify. Any habit is difficult to break, especially one that seems to give a measure of calm to the nerves or comfort to the body.
When mom decided to quit, she analyzed her habit. When did she crave a smoke the most? She decided it was right after meals and before she did the dishes. (A stack of dirty dishes from a farm family of six, plus whoever else may have been there, might send anyone into a bad habit!)
Now some who enjoy doing dishes might head right to the sink and forget things like cigarettes, but mom felt a need of a break right about then. However, she decided the only way to beat the craving was not to forsake her short time of relaxation and get at the dishes, but sit down anyway and do something else with her hands. So instead of picking up a white cylinder of nicotine, she took out some longer cylinders -- knitting needles and crochet hooks.
Over a dozen crocheted table clothes, uncountable sweaters, afghans and the like mark her success at breaking the habit and give visible evidence that her lungs have been cleared. She is to be commended.
Actually, mom’s idea originated in the Bible. Some call it the principle of replacement -- putting off an undesirable habit, trait, or characteristic by putting on something else. The New Testament first deals with something very basic that we need to get rid of -- our sinful nature.
Mom may have been able to go to a craft store and pick up a replacement for her problem, but picking up a new nature isn’t that easy. Stores don’t sell them. Self-help books and seminars try, but they don’t do anything more than dress up the old one. Resolutions or turning over a new leaf or trying harder may make some changes, however we cannot change who and what we are all by ourselves. Back to the Manufacturer we must go. The One who created us in the first place can restore us to the condition He originally intended. He does it through what the Bible calls regeneration, that is, the bestowal of new life, the life of His Son, into those who place their faith in Him.
The Apostle Paul referred to it this way, “Those who are in Christ Jesus are new creations; old things have passed away, all things are become new.” The life of Christ replaces the old nature, thus a Christian has a new nature, but is not automatically without sin. The old nature is still able to draw believers into sin. Part of the problem are those enslaving habits that may have formed before regeneration took place. This is where the replacement principle again comes in. Paul wrote, “Now put off the old nature which is corrupt... and put on the new nature which is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
He goes on to give some examples: “Don’t lie -- speak the truth. Don’t steal -- work so you have something to give to others in need. Don’t speak foul words -- say words that minister grace to your hearers. Put away bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice -- and be kind to others, tenderhearted, forgiving even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” (See Ephesians 4)
The key is concentration on the new. Trying not to do the old habit gets us nowhere but frustrated. Begin with asking God for new life, then take up the challenge of being truthful, hard working, generous, gracious, kind, tender, forgiving -- and we won’t have time for the other things!
The results? Paul calls it “an eternal weight of glory” and an “inheritance that is incorruptible and will never fade away.” Sounds even better than table clothes and sweaters!
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
“New” on the label does not work with hand-me-downs .................... Parables 147
When I was a little girl my mother often took apart a dress that could no longer be worn by its owner and remade it into a garment for me or my sister. Even though we had not worn it before, the title “a new dress” hardly seemed suitable. Our friends and classmates may not have seen the fabric on anyone else, but we knew that our new dress was really an old one.
Later on, my children wore pants made from an uncle’s slacks or a jacket from someone’s cast-off coat. Although they were happy to get these things, they were much happier with something made from scratch with new fabric, Anything else had belonged to someone else and was a make-over.
At the beginning of a new year, most of us feel our lives need a make-over. It is time for resolutions. Old habits need breaking. New habits must begin. Diets, stop smoking schemes, projects, you name it, let’s give it a fresh start.
The few pounds gained over the holidays drop off in January but return in March. Just one indulgence brings back that discarded bad habit worse than ever. The half finished projects are still there, waiting for next year’s resolutions. Fresh starts go stale so quickly.
Perhaps resolutions are something like recycled clothes. So often we just make-do or make-over. In fact, I’ve tried to take myself apart and put myself back together into a slightly different style. While the result may have looked different to an untrained eye, nothing was really new. Even if it fooled someone else, I knew my “new” self was just a recycled cast off. But there is a better way.
First, since resolutions are almost always expected to be discarded, give them a new name: goals. The word has a more permanent sound.
Second, recognize newness of life comes God. Make-overs are only the best we can do. As we trust Him to forgive our sins and failures, He will grant us a new start by giving us His gift of new life. “If any man be in Christ Jesus, old things pass away, and all things become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) What a promise for a new year!
Third, instead of determining goals on our own, remember what God says about making plans: “Woe to the obstinate children... those who carry out plans that are not mine...these are rebellious people... children unwilling to listen to the LORD’S instruction.” (Isaiah 30) Therefore, daily pray and seek God’s will in His word, before setting goals.
Fourth, when sure of what God wants accomplished in the new year, write it down, I keep a small binder on my desk with GOALS written on the outside spine. Each page has a general goal with steps needed toward its accomplishment. Several times a week, I look at these goals and pray about them. I even tell others what they are so someone will hold me accountable. This careful organization especially motivates people who get satisfaction from checking “to-do” items off a list.
Finally, do our part. God will not “zap” our life while we sit in an easy chair. Take action on the”steps” remembering our part is important, but we won’t achieve godly goals without prayer and reliance upon God. It is obedience to His power at work in us that will see us through. Remember, prayerfully setting goals with continued prayer and appropriate action that is done in His newness of life will produce results.
Wearing make-over clothes isn’t so bad; but I have no desire for a patched-up, made-over lifestyle. God starts from scratch. He gives His people new life with white robes of righteousness when they believe in and receive His Son. He daily energizes that life as we submit to Him, enabling the accomplishment of the plans He puts in our hearts. He is the secret of keeping resolutions all year long!
Later on, my children wore pants made from an uncle’s slacks or a jacket from someone’s cast-off coat. Although they were happy to get these things, they were much happier with something made from scratch with new fabric, Anything else had belonged to someone else and was a make-over.
At the beginning of a new year, most of us feel our lives need a make-over. It is time for resolutions. Old habits need breaking. New habits must begin. Diets, stop smoking schemes, projects, you name it, let’s give it a fresh start.
The few pounds gained over the holidays drop off in January but return in March. Just one indulgence brings back that discarded bad habit worse than ever. The half finished projects are still there, waiting for next year’s resolutions. Fresh starts go stale so quickly.
Perhaps resolutions are something like recycled clothes. So often we just make-do or make-over. In fact, I’ve tried to take myself apart and put myself back together into a slightly different style. While the result may have looked different to an untrained eye, nothing was really new. Even if it fooled someone else, I knew my “new” self was just a recycled cast off. But there is a better way.
First, since resolutions are almost always expected to be discarded, give them a new name: goals. The word has a more permanent sound.
Second, recognize newness of life comes God. Make-overs are only the best we can do. As we trust Him to forgive our sins and failures, He will grant us a new start by giving us His gift of new life. “If any man be in Christ Jesus, old things pass away, and all things become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) What a promise for a new year!
Third, instead of determining goals on our own, remember what God says about making plans: “Woe to the obstinate children... those who carry out plans that are not mine...these are rebellious people... children unwilling to listen to the LORD’S instruction.” (Isaiah 30) Therefore, daily pray and seek God’s will in His word, before setting goals.
Fourth, when sure of what God wants accomplished in the new year, write it down, I keep a small binder on my desk with GOALS written on the outside spine. Each page has a general goal with steps needed toward its accomplishment. Several times a week, I look at these goals and pray about them. I even tell others what they are so someone will hold me accountable. This careful organization especially motivates people who get satisfaction from checking “to-do” items off a list.
Finally, do our part. God will not “zap” our life while we sit in an easy chair. Take action on the”steps” remembering our part is important, but we won’t achieve godly goals without prayer and reliance upon God. It is obedience to His power at work in us that will see us through. Remember, prayerfully setting goals with continued prayer and appropriate action that is done in His newness of life will produce results.
Wearing make-over clothes isn’t so bad; but I have no desire for a patched-up, made-over lifestyle. God starts from scratch. He gives His people new life with white robes of righteousness when they believe in and receive His Son. He daily energizes that life as we submit to Him, enabling the accomplishment of the plans He puts in our hearts. He is the secret of keeping resolutions all year long!
Friday, April 18, 2014
Easter and new life ...........................Parables 107
This is Easter, an occasion to celebrate spring with
new clothes and stories about rabbits that lay colored eggs, baskets full of
the same, plus chocolate bunnies and jelly beans. The reality of the message of
Easter is gradually being lost to the candy industry. Unbelievable! If I did
not know that someone rose from the dead nearly 2000 years ago, I would not
find any clues in today's baskets full of cellophane grass and oval‑shaped
sweets.
Maybe no one believes that story anymore. After all,
we are a sophisticated society. People do not walk out of tombs after being
dead three days. (Is it easier to believe in a rabbit that lays eggs?) The
resurrection is not like spring ‑ which happens year after year. The backyard
grass and delphiniums look dead, but no matter how cold the winter or how deep
the snow, up they come. We are used to that kind of new life, even though it is
a bit of a miracle how those things survive.
Anyone who has seen a body finds it obvious that the
person who used to live there is gone. It is not like a tulip bulb that is
warmed by the sun and nourished by the rain. Bodies don't sprout and put down
roots and send up shoots. Human life is much more fragile.
But there was one... fully human, yes, but not like
us. We die because of sin. He didn't sin. But He died just the same. He was put
on a cross for claiming to be the Son of God. His crucifiers called Him a
blasphemer, scarcely considering that He may have been telling the truth.
Jesus knew their ignorance. He said, "Father,
forgive them; they don't know what they are doing." More evidence that He
was not like us!
Not only were they ignorant of what they were doing,
the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman soldiers didn't really kill Him. He gave up
His own life. That is, when He died, He yielded up His Spirit to His Father. No
one took it from Him. A unique death? Yes, very much so.
Jesus Christ did not stay in the grave. How do I know
that? First there is the external, objective evidence of an empty tomb. No bones,
no body. Then there is the recorded statements of eyewitnesses in the Word of
God (over 500 saw Him alive). Many of those eyewitnesses were martyred because
they refused to deny what they saw. Add to that the changed lives of thousands
who believed in Him since then. That is powerful evidence. I believe it.
Secondly, there is the internal, subjective evidence.
(Since experience is a personal verification and very subject to personal
desires, it is not always reliable. However, because my "experience"
is backed up by the objective evidence already stated, it is worth mentioning.)
Before Jesus died, He said that He was going to die, rise again, and then
ascend to heaven. When that was accomplished, He would send the Holy Spirit
whose task would be to "convince the world of sin (because they believe
not in me), of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16).
That happened to me ‑ just as it has happened to
countless other people. I became convinced that because I did not believe in
Jesus Christ, and because I was going my own way and not God's way, I was a
sinner, without the righteousness of Christ, and headed towards judgment.
It isn't that I wanted to think this way. Who would?
My tendency is to think much more highly of myself. Rather, the Spirit of God
made it abundantly clear by confronting me with the reality of the Man who rose
from the dead. What was I going to do about Him?
Easter is a celebration of new life. Eggs, tulips, and
bright colors may say something, but they do not say it all. The empty cross,
the empty tomb are the real celebration. They joyfully declare that the grave
could not hold Jesus. There is hope for the rest of us. We do not have to face
the winter of our life as its end. There is a resurrection on the other side
and, for those who place their faith in the Man of Easter, it will be a
resurrection to an eternal spring.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Caring for new life ....................... Parables 098
Now and then an abandoned but living baby is discovered on a doorstep, in a public washroom, or sometimes in a garbage can. Given the privilege of birth, it lives - but without the concern of society and the specific assistance of individuals and organizations, it wouldn’t live for long.
Christians have a similar concern regarding new-born spiritual babies.
Jesus, just before He ascended to heaven after His resurrection, gave a commandment that has become known as the “Great Commission.” Most Christians know it by memory: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:19,20)
It is a “great” commission. This was the way that Christ intended that spiritual reproduction and growth should occur. The process begins with birth: the Word of God is implanted in a receptive heart; and it mysteriously works by the power of the Spirit of God to bring a person to faith and a living union with Jesus Christ... “If any one is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
This spiritual birth is absolutely essential. Jesus told Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God... or enter into it” (John 3:3,5).
Washed clean from sin and guilt, the believing person is given a place in God’s family as he or she receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. “...to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will but born of God” (John 1:12,13).
The excitement in God’s family over a new birth is at least equal to the joy in a loving family after a physical birth; yet in a spiritual birth the new “babe” also enters into the celebration. In fact, he may be the most excited of all... he has come out of darkness into the light of God’s love and truth. He knows that he has been transformed by Christ and now belongs to Him.
Shortly after spiritual birth, the new Christian experiences hunger for large doses of his “milk”, the Word of God. Most of the time he gets nurtured and brought to maturity through the Scriptures and the shared knowledge and experience of mature believers who have been faithful to the command in the great commission. (II Timothy 2:2)
But sometimes the baby is abandoned. No one picks him up off the delivery room floor, cleans his eyes out, lovingly wraps him, or gives him regular feedings until he is able to feed himself. Sometimes this babe is picked up by a cult and nurtured by false teaching - resulting in doctrinal distortion, loss of victory over sin - and loss of joy.
I’ve wondered how the Lord Jesus responds when He sees the abandoned babes? How does He feel when these babes struggle in immaturity? I know how the babes feel.
The Bible is clear that both birth and nurturing are part of the great commission. New babes in the Lord are not to be abandoned but taught by those who have already reached a measure of maturity.
And it is never too late to begin.
Christians have a similar concern regarding new-born spiritual babies.
Jesus, just before He ascended to heaven after His resurrection, gave a commandment that has become known as the “Great Commission.” Most Christians know it by memory: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:19,20)
It is a “great” commission. This was the way that Christ intended that spiritual reproduction and growth should occur. The process begins with birth: the Word of God is implanted in a receptive heart; and it mysteriously works by the power of the Spirit of God to bring a person to faith and a living union with Jesus Christ... “If any one is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
This spiritual birth is absolutely essential. Jesus told Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God... or enter into it” (John 3:3,5).
Washed clean from sin and guilt, the believing person is given a place in God’s family as he or she receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. “...to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will but born of God” (John 1:12,13).
The excitement in God’s family over a new birth is at least equal to the joy in a loving family after a physical birth; yet in a spiritual birth the new “babe” also enters into the celebration. In fact, he may be the most excited of all... he has come out of darkness into the light of God’s love and truth. He knows that he has been transformed by Christ and now belongs to Him.
Shortly after spiritual birth, the new Christian experiences hunger for large doses of his “milk”, the Word of God. Most of the time he gets nurtured and brought to maturity through the Scriptures and the shared knowledge and experience of mature believers who have been faithful to the command in the great commission. (II Timothy 2:2)
But sometimes the baby is abandoned. No one picks him up off the delivery room floor, cleans his eyes out, lovingly wraps him, or gives him regular feedings until he is able to feed himself. Sometimes this babe is picked up by a cult and nurtured by false teaching - resulting in doctrinal distortion, loss of victory over sin - and loss of joy.
I’ve wondered how the Lord Jesus responds when He sees the abandoned babes? How does He feel when these babes struggle in immaturity? I know how the babes feel.
The Bible is clear that both birth and nurturing are part of the great commission. New babes in the Lord are not to be abandoned but taught by those who have already reached a measure of maturity.
And it is never too late to begin.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Changed lives ......................... Parables 068
School is out but I am thinking about Chemistry. Aside from the time our class nearly blew up the lab, chemistry was generally boring; however, it has become more interesting as years go by. After all, homemakers perform chemical experiments every time they bake a cake.
Farmers are chemists these days too. They mix herbicides and pesticides to the right strength to do the job. In fact, nearly everyone is familiar with mixing ingredients together to produce some new substance that is different from what went into it originally.
A chemical that has no active properties is called inert. An agent is a substance that causes material change. A catalyst is a substance that will change the pace of a chemical reaction but itself is not affected by the change. Now for the chemistry test:
What would you call an agent that changes some other substance, one that has no power to change itself, into something just like it is, yet this first agent is not affected or changed in the experiment? - Give up?
Actually, the question is a bit tricky because it is taking words from chemistry and using them to describe a spiritual phenomenon; however, this spiritual reaction is not invisible or unobservable. When it occurs, it is more obvious than many of the changes involved in laboratory experiments. In fact, if it is not obvious, it did not even happen.
The agent that causes the change is the Lord Jesus Christ. The “substance” that is changed, but has no power to change itself, is the human spirit. (“Just as a leopard cannot change its spots, or an Ethiopian the color of its skin” ... we are not able to change our inner selves. We can whitewash the outside, but the basic nature stays the same.)
When these two, the Son of God and the spirit of man, come together in a living relationship, the first agent, the Lord, stays the same; “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Our union with Him does not affect His sinless, perfect character.
But He affects us... “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, all things are become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17) Those who believe in Him and whose spirits have become united with His Spirit are being changed into His image. (Romans 8:29)
One person changing another is not so unusual. Just think for a minute about the various people that have had an impact on your life; parents, teachers, friends, even enemies. In some way, those people have affected you, molded and shaped your character, passed to you some of their characteristics so that you now think or act in similar ways. The strength of their personality usually determines the degree of their impact.
Now think about Jesus Christ - the strength of who He is - God in human flesh. The Roman soldiers said, “No man ever talked like this man.” Nor did any man ever do the things that Jesus did: heal the sick, raise the dead, live a sinless life, die for all men, rise up from the dead, then ascend to sit at the right hand of God. He called Himself the “I Am”, the self-existing One. If our parents, friends, and other people in our lives, in all their imperfections and changeableness, can impact us, is it any wonder that intimate union with this Man can transform us completely?
In chemistry, change is the evidence of a chemical reaction. In spirituality, change is also the evidence of new life in Christ. Some people profess to belong to Christ but there is no change in them, no evidence that the Son of God has even come near them. Perhaps He has not. Others are “nice” folks, who see no need of change, so it never happens.
Still others, not satisfied, sensing that their lives are not all they should be or could be, desire change. Jesus invites these seekers into His “lab”, where He becomes the key ingredient in transforming their lives.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Next Year? ................................. Parables 044
New Year’s Resolutions anyone? One dictionary defines a resolution as a “termination of an abnormal condition.”... ceasing to BE something that is not normal. Most resolutions are decisions to stop DOING unwanted behavior, and begin DOING new behavior. It would be interesting to take a look at resolutions from the point of view of BEING (or character), rather than DOING.
The human race, when first created, was perfect. Adam and Eve were innocent of sin, lived in harmony with each other and with their Creator. Their work was rewarding. They were content. And This was the norm, the way that they were supposed to be.
After Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they were no longer innocent but guilty. They were put out of the presence of God, and their normal, happy life became difficult, marked by sin, and diametrically opposite to the paradise they had been expelled from.
Since then, we have become so accustomed to our abnormal behavior that we tend to think of it as normal, except around New Years, when something stirs us to “turn over a new leaf,” “begin fresh,” or simply “do it right next year.”
However, the behaviors that we resolve to change are simply byproducts of our character, our BEING. Since New Year’s Resolutions generally take a swipe only at what we DO, our good intentions inevitably fail because we merely treat symptoms. And even if we wanted to, we cannot change what we ARE. We cannot terminate our abnormal condition. The Bible questions our ability to change ourselves with, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” (Jeremiah 13:23)
But there is good news. God’s Word says much about the power of God to “make a new thing.” His creation gives examples, from the rising of a volcanic mountain off the flat ocean floor, to the metamorphosis of a butterfly from a fuzzy caterpillar. As for us humans, the Bible speaks of “putting off the old nature and putting on the new” and “walking in newness of life.”
It is possible to have new life. The source of this new life is Jesus Christ. In fact, He was so full of life that the grave could not hold Him.
1 John 5 says that anyone who has the Son (Jesus) has life, but those who do not have Christ, do not have life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it this way, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
That means that a person who has received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their life is made new, changed . . . given the capacity to live as they were intended to live, set free from guilt, restored to a right relationship with God, and changed. Actually, they have become normal.
This year, instead of making a list of resolutions of things to DO, a resolution that will perhaps run dry by January 30, try the definition of resolution that calls for an end to the abnormal condition of guilt and sin. Begin the new year with a new life, everlasting life, through a relationship with the only One who has that kind of life.
The human race, when first created, was perfect. Adam and Eve were innocent of sin, lived in harmony with each other and with their Creator. Their work was rewarding. They were content. And This was the norm, the way that they were supposed to be.
After Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they were no longer innocent but guilty. They were put out of the presence of God, and their normal, happy life became difficult, marked by sin, and diametrically opposite to the paradise they had been expelled from.
Since then, we have become so accustomed to our abnormal behavior that we tend to think of it as normal, except around New Years, when something stirs us to “turn over a new leaf,” “begin fresh,” or simply “do it right next year.”
However, the behaviors that we resolve to change are simply byproducts of our character, our BEING. Since New Year’s Resolutions generally take a swipe only at what we DO, our good intentions inevitably fail because we merely treat symptoms. And even if we wanted to, we cannot change what we ARE. We cannot terminate our abnormal condition. The Bible questions our ability to change ourselves with, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” (Jeremiah 13:23)
But there is good news. God’s Word says much about the power of God to “make a new thing.” His creation gives examples, from the rising of a volcanic mountain off the flat ocean floor, to the metamorphosis of a butterfly from a fuzzy caterpillar. As for us humans, the Bible speaks of “putting off the old nature and putting on the new” and “walking in newness of life.”
It is possible to have new life. The source of this new life is Jesus Christ. In fact, He was so full of life that the grave could not hold Him.
1 John 5 says that anyone who has the Son (Jesus) has life, but those who do not have Christ, do not have life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it this way, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
That means that a person who has received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their life is made new, changed . . . given the capacity to live as they were intended to live, set free from guilt, restored to a right relationship with God, and changed. Actually, they have become normal.
This year, instead of making a list of resolutions of things to DO, a resolution that will perhaps run dry by January 30, try the definition of resolution that calls for an end to the abnormal condition of guilt and sin. Begin the new year with a new life, everlasting life, through a relationship with the only One who has that kind of life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)